Sarcasm Rocks

I love it when people speak sarcastically about our industry...

The Most Thorough List Of Viral Video i Have Ever Seen!

The Oldest Living Digital Marketer has a lot of time (since he is the oldest living) to gather together viral videos and show you what some of the best, worst and most hyped are from the past 10 years (or at least from the last year).

Have fun reading and watching!!

What Effect Will Politics Have on Advertising?

The next 3-5 months are going to be interesting. The economy is definitely down and more advertisers are cutting back on their budgets. The Olympics are over and the Democratic and Republican conventions will be history in a few days, but what's going to happen to ad dollars between now and January?

With the uncertainty over who will be President comes the continued uncertainty of the housing market and the oil prices that are still too high. This may translate into a slower Q4 than we'd like! Ad dollars are going to be harder to get and they'll be more focused on actions and accountability. We keep talking about the goal of brand advertisers spending money online, but the brand advertisers are looking at actions too! Is it possible that brand advertisers will continue to be action-focused? If so, then performance will still be the name of the game and the dollars may grow at a slower-than-desired pace.

The only people that I know who will be spending are the Presidential candidates. Will they become the highest share of voice in the marketplace? Will a potential increase in supply drive prices further down as demand may be tight? I wish i knew the answers to these questions. It would make me sleep a little easier at night. That's for sure!

Using Search Tools for Start-Ups

I recently came across some very cool tools that search advertisers use to create and manage their campaigns but which I also think can be used for other purposes.

Microsoft AdCenter

Google Trends

I am not going to go into detail as to how you can use these tools for research, I will leave that up to you to figure out. What I am going to say is that in my business of examining start-ups, gathering data and developing sales and marketing strategies, these types of tools are very valuable. I can gather competitive information and do research that may help me to uncover a strategy that was not readily apparent. Examining trends is extremely important in and of itself and as a student of popular culture, these types of tools are invaluable.

Anyways, I don't want to take too much of your time. Check them out for yourself!

A Little Primer on QR Codes

If you don't know what a QR Code is, then you need to do some homework because I think they are sort of important. A QR Code looks like a bar code, but more pixelated. It is a matrix design that can be read digitally and used to trigger the delivery of information in many formats. They are being used more widely now as a tool for creating interaction on a mobile campaign.

Ralph Lauren is using them this month in ads in and in its catalog. The trick is to take a picture of a code and SMS it and receive coupons or valuable information. It delivers on a promise of mobile that the Cue Cat never could.

They look a little techie, but I do anticipate that they are going to get more wide-spread usage very, very soon. They can be used on billboards too, giving a modicum of measurement to outdoor advertising.

For some light reading, check out these links below:

A video to explain how it works.

A detail from another blogger.

Have fun reading!!